13. Purdue (23-8)
For a team that began things as the preseason number one team, Purdue hasn’t exactly been living up to those expectations. Let’s not pretend like this isn’t a very talented squad in West Lafayette, but the Boilermakers had some struggles and even lost four of their last six games to finish the season, including three at home. In fact, Purdue didn’t even earn the triple-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
Their first matchup lacked drama as the Boilermakers used a strong first half to win 81-68 over Northwestern, getting 19-point efforts from big men Oscar Cluff and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Things went surprisingly smoothly on Friday in a 74-58 victory over Nebraska, the 2-seed in the field. Fletcher Loyer led the scoring with 19 points. Purdue kept rolling along in the semifinals with another great team effort in a 73-62 win over UCLA. Cluff starred with 17 points and 14 rebounds, Kaufman-Renn had a double-double, and the Boilermakers turned their recent struggles around.
What was absolutely a brutal stretch to end the season exposed a porous defense that wasn’t getting the job done. Purdue’s offense has been impressive all year long and that was on display again in the Big Ten Tournament, but that job’s not done either. We’ll see a very solid position for Purdue when the bracket is unveiled but first they’re going to give their best shot at Michigan in the title game right before that show.